The Wednesday Word ~ 14 May, 2025 A.D.

Jesus the Bread of Life

 by D.G. Miles McKee

 

In John’s Gospel we find the seven ‘I Am’ scriptures, spoken by Jesus to declare His Deity.  Among them we find John 6:35 where Jesus says, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.”

 

Listening to this we must conclude that, if Jesus is not God, He can hardly be viewed as a repository of modesty.  Here He is setting Himself up as the Bread of Life; the One who gives life to the world. What a cheek, cheek that is, if He is not God!

 

Indeed, when we read this discourse, in John 6, we discover that Jesus makes a sevenfold reference to Himself as the Bread of Life (see verses 32 33, 35, 48, 50, 51, 58).  According to the Master, this is the very bread that must be eaten, by faith, to receive everlasting life (see verses 50, 51 53, 54, 56, 57, 58).  We should note that the Roman Communion makes much of these statements to establish her incorrect and blasphemous doctrine of 'the Mass.'  They carefully fail to point out that this discourse in John 6 has nothing whatsoever to do with the Last Supper. The Lord’s Supper was not established until about a year later. They also fail to note that Christ’s language in this situation is figurative, not literal.

 

This bread to which Christ refers is, Christ Himself.  He, as our High Priest  and sacrificial lamb offered Himself on the altar of the cross. There He redeemed His people, answered the sin question and satisfied the justice of God.  When we receive Him by faith alone we are figuratively eating His flesh and drinking His blood.   

 

In verse 33 He says, “For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and gives life unto the world.”

 

His spiritually attuned listeners on that day could not have failed to notice that He referred to Himself as, “He which cometh down from heaven.”  By this one term, Jesus is again asserting His deity! In the Old Testament, to “come down from heaven” meant a divine descent from the throne of God to accomplish a task of either grace or judgment.

In Genesis 11: 4 and 7, for example, God “came down” in Judgment against the Tower of Babel.

In Genesis 18:21, God, regarding Sodom says, “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me.”

Regarding the people of Israel in Exodus 3:8, the Lord says, “I am come down to deliver them.”

In Exodus 19:20, God “comes down” upon the mount of Sinai to give His law.

In Psalms, 18:19 “He bowed the heavens and came down” in answer to cries of distress.

 

Since to come down from heaven is God’s work and prerogative, we once more see the Master making the grand declaration that He is God manifest in the flesh.

 

In summary, Jesus as the Bread of life is the sustainer of life that means He is God.  Jesus declares He has come down from heaven, again that means He is God. He also claims that union with Him is essential to eternal life—again that means He is God.

 

And that´s the Gospel Truth!